The day is ending. I’m sitting on the porch swing watching the gloaming begin. Mary Oliver said, “Is there anything more loyal than the sun?” The sun is most certainly faithful waking the day and the night. We never doubt she’ll rise again. I can see the sun dressed in her orange ball gown as a beam of brightness through the branches of an old water oak across the street. There are no clouds to paint tonight so Mother Nature is brushing her watercolors across the horizon in the shades of a ripe peach. So beautiful. If I listen quietly I can hear joyous singing from Wednesday night services in a small white clapboard church on the edge of town.

The street is growing quiet and the yard symphony is in a decrescendo. I love the twilight symphony as dusk quietly walks up my street — the quiet bird songs, the lonely whistle of a train, the soft steps of the yard dog headed home, the last laughter of the children called inside, the soft tones of the wind chimes. The misty shadows and colors are so wondrous. As Aaron Rose said, “In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” Twilight has a soft glow of goodness to me, a reminder that as darkness falls we know light from the rising sun will be bringing hope. “There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope,” Bernard Williams.

Every morning begins with a symphony of nature praising God for another day of the earth spinning on its axis. As Mother Nature’s worlds tune their instruments a glorious sunrise sets the concert stage. This morning I listened and made note of how my morning musical sounded — the coos of the mourning dove, the songbirds’ sweet solos, the squirrel screaming “Frank,” the wind’s gentle rustle of the bamboo leaves, the loud lonely whistle of the freight train, a cat’s meow, the soft pings of my wind chimes, and an intrusive cell phone ping. All these sounds gathered to wake me with a symphony of God’s gift of breath for another day.

We should look at each morning as a new beginning with a fresh start. In difficult times a new day offers us opportunities to find hope. No matter what trials you faced yesterday, a new day’s sunrise and the glorious symphonies of nature bring a new day of possibilities and remind us to give God thanks for all our blessings. Even in the face of adversity we can find beauty and wonder in the simple song of a bird. Remember this Swedish proverb, “those who wish to sing always find a song.”

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love,” Marcus Aurelius.